Partnership for Indian construction

30 September 2009

A partnership has been formed with the aim of taking part in Indian new-build construction work by Hindustan Construction Co (HCC) and Amec of the UK.

The two firms have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a strategic partnership under which they would "jointly explore" the application of engineering procurement and construction services as well as consulting.

Already a very large contractor that has built about half of India's nuclear fleet, HCC said it would be strengthened in the areas of mechanical and electrical components by being able to source the latest technologies through Amec.

Ajit Gulabchand, chairman and managing director of HCC said Amec "is the ideal partner to help us catapult India to the cutting edge of nuclear power generation."

The pair will hope to gain work in India's rush for nuclear build. The government has plans to reach a capacity of 20,000 MWe by 2020 and as much as 63,000 MWe by 2032. Beyond even this, prime minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday that a figure of 470,000 MWe could be achieved by 2050 if the country 'thinks big' and executes its plans correctly.

French, Russian and American vendors are eager to sign final contracts to construct a total of 30 reactors at four sites, but before this can take place India must bring into force its safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and approve a suitable nuclear liability law. Besides foreign reactors, India has extensive plans to deploy domestically designed units in which overseas construction companies could gain involvement.